The mural depicts Shaw and Webb striking the
earth with hammers. Across the bottom, the masses kneel in
worship of a sack of books advocating the theories of
socialism. H.G.
Wells thumbs his nose at the docile masses who, after
quitting the Fabians, denounced them a “the new
Machiavellians”.

The most revealing component, however, is the Fabians crest
which appears between Shaw and Wells. It is a wolf in
sheep’s clothing.

Your right to vote in parliamentary elections
is your most precious right as a citizen.

Your right to vote is...

The sword of your power

and the shield of your freedom.

Sword
against bad Government.

A shield
against dictators.

They are
the greatest guarantee of your freedom.
You can use it to remove bad members or Governments.

Your right to vote in parliamentary elections
is a very recent right that emerged from Chartist
agitation
in England and Australia in the 19th century.

The Evolution of Your Sword of Power
By British ‘Chartists’ in the UK 1832-52

The Six Point
People’s Charter of the London Working Mens’
Association, a group of respectable radicals 1836.

The Petition
of the Birmingham Political Union for these Six Points
to become law 1838
- Universal male
suffrage
- Secret ballot
- Equal electoral districts
- Payment for members of parliament
- Abolition of property qualification for members of
parliament
- Annual parliamentary elections.

The violence
in response to Fergus O’Connor’s Northern Star 1839.

The
transportation of two leaders of a brief uprising to
Australia . Imprisonment of a number of others for a
short time. 1840.

The second
Chartist petition six miles long with over 3,000,000
signatures presented to Parliament and rejected 1842.

100’s
arrested, and 79 transported in Midlands and Scotland
1843.

The plan for
an immense procession from Kennington Common to the
House of Commons bearing a petition signed by 6 million
aborted by the Duke of Wellington’s planned ‘defence of
London’.By agreement, it
went by cab 1848.

The campaign by Chartists,
sent to Australia, to include universal suffrage in the
Victorian legislation for self-government 1851-5.

The Evolution of Your Shield of Freedom 1856
By the British barrister, H.S.Chapman

The Victorian
shield of freedom was in fact a double shield. It
invented the polling booth and identification of voters by
roll numbers. This created a double security for the honest
voter of his/her vote.

(A) A secret
voting process in a polling booth in a secure room.

A secret
‘polling’ booth which screened a voter while voting

A secure
room to ensure voters queued in an orderly manner.

(B) A voter’s
electoral roll number was written on the ballot paper.

This number
was written on the corresponding stub

No loose
ballot papers nor voting outside polling booths.

Means were adopted to
prevent this device being abused.

They were
only matched with the original ballot paper books if
the result of an election in a particular seat was
challenged

Meanwhile
they were sent to the House of Commons for security.

This device of identification
of voters by roll numbers broke the deadlock of opposition
to a 100% secret ballot, which parliaments rejected as
protecting the dishonest voter not the honest voter. It was
adopted in many countries, including the UK and USA as the
‘Australian ballot’.